Luiz void filled as instrumental Onana strikes again in Villa win

The difficulty for Aston Villa when looking for a replacement for the talismanic Douglas Luiz was not only finding a towering presence in midfield but someone who could match his impressive goal tally.
After his second goal in three games, in another dominant display, Amadou Onana looks like he will fill the void left by the Brazilian just fine as Aston Villa beat Leicester City 2-1 at the King Power.
With Ollie Watkins again without his finishing boots, as he passed up two first-half chances, it was over to Villa’s £50 million man to lay the foundations for another away win.
Youri Tielemans worked a clever free-kick routine down the right channel to the substitute Jacob Ramsey, who whipped in an inviting cross for Onana to fire into the net.
Leicester were furious for the awarding of the free kick, with Steve Cooper having a dig at refereeing standards across the league after his side’s second defeat of the campaign.
“You keep your fingers crossed every week that it doesn’t go against you,” Cooper said. “I realised it last season when I was away from the game. The Premier League is the best league and the refereeing is trying to catch up with that.”
This was by no means an impressive Villa victory, but they did enough. For Leicester it was an improved display from their last home outing. They showed ambition to press the visitors, but on the ball the quality was just not there.
Onana was instrumental in winning the ball back every time Cooper’s team attempted to break and had it not been for the heroics of Mads Hermansen who denied Watkins and Ramsey they would have gone in at the break further ahead.
“His adaptation has been very good and he understands everything quickly. He is hungry to grow up because he is young and he has lots of potential. Progressively he is adapting to our structure,” Unai Emery said of his new midfielder.
Leicester thought they were level when Jamie Vardy finished in that calm, confident way of his, and the King Power erupted. But the referee, David Coote, had already blown his whistle because the ball had hit him in the build-up.
Then in came the super sub, Jhon Durán, to finish it off. Lucas Digne whipped in a brilliant ball and Durán rose, towering above Wout Faes and Caleb Okoli, to head past Hermansen.
Cooper brought on Stephy Mavididi and Facundo Buonanotte, and Mavididi soon burst down the left and crossed into the box; Wilfred Ndidi headed it back and Bounanotte volleyed past Emi Martínez.
They couldn’t do it again could they? The home side wanted two penalties deep into stoppage time but Coote waved away their protestations and Villa held on to keep all three points.
Leicester City (4-2-3-1) M Hermansen 7 — J Justin 6, C Okoli 7 (K McAteer 92min), W Faes 7, V Kristiansen 5 — O Skipp 6 (B El Khannouss 68, 7), H Winks 7 — A Fatawu 6 (F Buonanotte 68, 7), W Ndidi 7 (B De Cordova-Reid 89), J Ayew 5 (S Mavididi 68, 7) — J Vardy 6. Booked Skipp, Vardy, Winks, Okoli.
Aston Villa (4-4-2) E Martinez 7 — E Konsa 7, L Bogarde 6 (K Nedeljkovic 79), P Torres 7, L Digne 7 — L Bailey 6 (J Ramsey 16, 7; L Maatsen 79), A Onana 8 (R Barkley 62), Y Tielemans 7, J McGinn 6 — M Rogers 7, O Watkins 6 (J Durán 62). Booked Onana, Tielemans, Bogarde, McGinn, Durán.
Referee David Coote. Attendance 31,725.